Damsel
by beeftony
Summary: Orwell explains to Vince why he shouldn't have to rescue her all the time.


"I left my taser in my purse."

"Huh?" Vince inquired as they slipped out into the night, away from the impending ARK troopers who had the somewhat embarrassing responsibility of responding to an attempted murder at a circus.

"That's why you had to rescue me," Orwell explained, turning to look at him. "I forgot my purse on the bleachers."

He suppressed a chuckle, but couldn't keep a sly grin from appearing on his face. "Oh, _that's_ why? It wasn't because he was using that cape like a prehensile tail?"

The mysterious blogger shot him a glare, but a smirk found its way through despite her most valiant attempts to look offended. "I'm not the one who's new at this, you know," she protested. "I'm supposed to watch over _you_."

"Just returning the favor," he insisted, still smiling.

They walked in silence toward her car, the Tesla Roadster she'd driven when they first met. Vince was still at a loss as to how she managed to afford all her neat toys, but as long as she was using them to assist him in his quest to wreak vengeance on Peter Fleming he wasn't going to question it. If she hadn't deduced his identity ten seconds after they got back to her last hideout then he'd probably be having fun with the whole mystery thing too.

His grin slowly ebbed as he remembered the reason they hadn't gone their separate ways after the day had been saved. She'd had to torch that hideout because he'd gotten too careless and led ARK right to her doorstep. Now they had to share a headquarters, and already she had begun the process Vince had lovingly referred to as "nesting" when Dana had started adding her own personal touches to everything that used to be his. That thought sent his smile into hiding for the rest of the night.

"You did good tonight," Orwell complimented, as if sensing his sudden depression.

"I just did what I had to," he insisted, shaking his head.

"You didn't have to," she corrected him. "Your fight with Gregor wasn't personal. All he wants is the cape."

"He made it personal when he threatened the only people in the world who are willing to help me right now," Vince replied with an intensity that appeared to surprise her. "You and Max... until I get Dana and Trip back you're the only people in this city I can trust."

"And what happens after you get them back?"

He frowned, not having considered that. By this time they had arrived at the Roadster, and he walked around to the passenger's side before opening the door and sliding inside. "I don't know. We all want to get rid of Fleming. Once that's done... I guess we could all just be friends."

She rolled her eyes. "You need to stop thinking you can actually hurt my feelings."

Vince chuckled as she started the car, or at least he assumed she'd started it when he felt it zoom forward, because the engine noise was virtually nonexistent. "Fine, I guess what I'm saying is I won't forget about you once all this is over."

"I'm not a damsel, you know," she continued, pulling out onto the main road and gunning it.

"I'm aware of that," he grunted as his body adjusted to the g-forces.

"Just because you've saved my life twice now doesn't mean I'm going to be your friend when all this is over."

He glanced over at her and noticed that her eyes were set in a deep and disapproving glare, and though she wasn't looking at him, he could tell it was meant to be in his direction.

"Orwell, what are you talking about?"

"I've taken... a severe risk helping you, Vince," she explained. "I don't think you fully understand that."

"What's not to understand? You got smoked out of your hideout because of me, Le Fleur almost skinned you alive a few weeks ago, and Gregor tried to kill you tonight. You've been putting yourself in more danger than you're used to in order to help me out and I'm thankful that you trust me enough to continue doing that."

"Then why do you keep talking like both of us are still going to be around once Fleming's gone?"

His face contorted into an expression of pure confusion. "What?"

"Some of us don't _have_ a Dana, or a Trip to return to," she clarified, and Vince caught the faintest hint of choking in her voice before she brought it under control again. "Some of us have been on our own our whole lives."

She frowned. "I can't think like you do. I can't think about what I'm going to do after all this is over. I haven't known anything other than hiding in the shadows for a long time."

And suddenly he understood. "You don't like that I rescued you because you're used to doing everything yourself."

"Not just that." She took the Roadster around a particularly sharp corner at dangerously illegal speeds, but that didn't even seem to register on the contemplative mask she had put up over her face. "I'm worried that... that getting too close to you might lead to both of us getting discovered. If they track me down then it makes it that much easier for them to capture you."

"Oh come on, you wouldn't rat me out." At least he hoped not.

"I wouldn't," she admitted, but her frown persisted. "But it wouldn't matter anyway. The more you rescue me, the more people will try and use me to get to you."

Now she was starting to make sense. "You mean like, use you as bait?"

Orwell nodded.

"Well you said yourself, you're not a damsel," he replied. "You tried to taser me when we first met."

"And it didn't _work_," she reminded him. "It didn't work on Le Fleur either, and I forgot the taser entirely with Gregor. I keep getting put in these situations and... I'm becoming a liability."

"No you're not."

"_Yes_, I am. I can't do all those crazy stunts you do. I can't jump across rooftops or knock people's guns out of their hands or disappear in a puff of smoke. I can't choke people into unconsciousness with their own cape. You're a superhero and I'm... not."

"Hey." The tone he used was forceful enough that Orwell took her eyes off the road long enough to meet his gaze. "I can't jam cell phone activity in a five hundred foot radius of a cargo ship. I can't find out someone's identity in two seconds by scanning a fingerprint I took off a button they pressed. I sure as hell can't hack into a firewall or hotwire a car. But you know who can?"

Her eyes returned to the road, but he wasn't finished. "You can, Orwell. You can do all those things and more. Now I wouldn't call that a liability. You help me out when I need it, and I return the favor when you get in over your head. That's what partners do."

The ghost of a smile came back to her and she glanced over at him again. "Partners?"

He nodded. "Partners."

They drove in silence for a few minutes before Orwell chuckled. "I totally would have tasered him too."

Vince decided to indulge in a little laughter himself.

* * *

Author's Notes: So I've been watching _The Cape_ recently. This is a little something that resulted from that. It's a good show! Of course, I'll basically watch anything with Summer Glau, but the rest of the actors are quite good. You should check it out.

This takes place after last week's episode, "Kozmo." If you haven't seen it yet, go to Hulu right now and watch all three episodes that they have posted.

I tried posting this three days ago, but I had trouble finding the section for this show until I remembered that ffnet doesn't include "The" in series titles anymore. This is significant because I wrote this long before I saw the scene at the end of "Scales on a Train," which would have convinced me that the writers were picking my brain if not for the fact that they stopped writing months ago. Still, I was amazed at how close I got. I'm betting it was a lucky guess.

Let me know what you think!


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